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AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta House Financial Services Committee Chairman Representative Jeb Hensarling speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, May 2, 2017, during the committee's hearing on overhauling the nation's financial rules. rules-logo-109_2.jpg C orporate political spending has spiked noticeably in the business-friendly Trump era, but so has the pressure on corporations to fully disclose the money they pour into politics. Shareholders have filed dozens of resolutions this proxy season that call on companies to explain and account for their political spending. In January and February alone, shareholders filed 90 resolutions relating to political activity, including one that comes before the Berkshire Hathaway board on May 6. By one estimate, such resolutions numbered 105 in 2016. But Republicans on Capitol Hill, under pressure from business lobbyists, have introduced legislation authored by Texas Representative Jeb Hensarling that would silence most shareholders as part...

AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez Members of the Orchard City Indivisible Group raise their hands in support of a fellow member who spoke before the city's council against the policies of President Trump in Campbell, California. rules-logo-109_2.jpg W hen a pair of former Democratic Hill aides put out a Donald Trump resistance manual dubbed the Indivisible Guide in December, they deliberately set out to emulate the hyper-local tactics so successfully deployed by the Tea Party. Not lost on the authors of the guide, which went instantly viral and garnered $1 million in contributions to fund a group dubbed the Indivisible Project, was that Tea Party organizers had run afoul of the Internal Revenue Service for allegedly diving into politics while seeking tax exemption. Pressured by Republicans following a critical inspector general report, the IRS later apologized for improperly targeting Tea Party groups, but the flap exposed the perils for nonprofits that enter the political fray. Undaunted...

AP Photo/Susan Walsh President Donald Trump speaks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House. rules-logo-109_2.jpg O ne of the many things that sets apart Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office from those of any previous president is his near-total disregard for all Executive Branch ethics rules and conventions. The absence of transparency, the real and apparent conflicts that expose Trump and the first family to accusations of self-dealing , and the president’s unusually heavy reliance on billionaire CEOs, Wall Street insiders and special interest lobbyists, all take the potential for White House corruption to a level unseen since Watergate. Trump bragged on the campaign trail that he was not beholden to wealthy donors, and pledged to “drain the swamp” in Washington. But unlike previous presidents, Trump has failed to release his tax returns or put his business assets in a blind trust . Members of his family, including his daughter, Ivanka—now an official White House adviser—continue...

Susan Platt campaign Political consultant Susan Platt, who is running for the state's open lieutenant governor seat, at the Women's March on Washington. rules-logo-109_2.jpg F or New York lawyer Alessandra Biaggi, the moment of truth came on election night, as she gathered with fellow Hillary Clinton campaign workers in a room beneath the stage of Manhattan’s Javits Center, and watched her young, female interns cry their eyes out. “I just remember looking at them,” recalls Biaggi, 30, and thinking: “I am going to run for office.” For New Jersey businesswoman Christine Chen, the tipping point came after Election Day, when she was struggling to explain to her two young children that a man she considered a bully would now be president. “It wasn’t congruent with everything I was teaching, and I really asked myself if there was more that I could do,” recalls Chen, 36. Soon afterward, she says, “I sent an email to my entire family and said: I’m going to run for office.” Virginia consultant...

AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File Supreme Court Justice nominee Neil Gorsuch during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. rules-logo-109_2.jpg U ndisclosed political money has been a key factor in the fight over Judge Neil Gorsuch’s Supreme Court confirmation, both as a tool for big-spending conservative groups, and as a flash point for Democratic opposition. Close to two dozen of the Senate Democrats who have vowed to block Gorsuch have denounced both the more than $10 million spent—with no disclosure—to promote him, and Gorsuch’s own failure to endorse political transparency. On campaign-finance issues, Gorsuch appears to fall to the right of the late Antonin Scalia, who favored deregulation but who staunchly defended political disclosure . Gorsuch also has regarded contribution limits to candidates’ campaigns, one of the few remaining pillars of the campaign-finance regime, in a more critical light than the Supreme Court has. “This issue has galvanized the...